Your health data
deserves special protection.
Advance healthcare directives contain information about your health. Before you go any further, we ask for your explicit consent — separate from any other terms.
This translation is provided for information. The Italian version is legally binding.
What advance directives are
An advance healthcare directive — known in Italy as DAT (disposizioni anticipate di trattamento) or ‘biotestamento’, and in Switzerland as a living will (Patientenverfügung) — sets out a person’s wishes about their medical care, in case they are no longer able to express them.
On Erabox you can create an advance directive capsule: a piece of digital content that records your wishes and delivers them, at the right moment, to the people and professionals you have chosen.
Why this consent is separate
The General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) identifies, in Article 9, health data as a ‘special category’ that requires additional protection compared with ordinary personal data. In Switzerland, the FADP (SR 235.1) classifies health data as sensitive personal data (Art. 5(c)) and, where processing is based on consent, requires that consent to be explicit (Art. 6(7)(a)).
Erabox keeps and delivers your advance directives on your behalf, as processor, under the Data Processing Agreement you have accepted. Even so, it asks you for separate explicit consent, which also covers the processing Erabox carries out as controller, such as linking the advance directive capsule to your account.
To process this data lawfully, your acceptance of the Terms and Conditions is not enough. The law requires explicit, separate, freely given and informed consent — specifically for health data.
| Legal requirement | What it means for you | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Explicit consent | A clear affirmative action — not a pre-ticked box, not implied acceptance | Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR |
| Separate consent | Distinct from general consent: you can’t accept it ‘by inclusion’ in the Terms and Conditions | Art. 7(2) GDPR |
| Dedicated privacy notice | You need to know exactly what data is involved, how it is used, for how long and who it is shared with | Art. 13 GDPR |
| Right to withdraw | You can withdraw your consent at any time without consequences | Art. 7(3) GDPR Art. 30(2)(b) FADP |
| Data minimisation | We collect only the data strictly necessary for the advance directive feature | Art. 5(1)(c) GDPR |
How we process your health data
Data in advance directive capsules is protected by the security measures described below.
What Erabox is not
Here is what the law requires for a legally valid advance healthcare directive, depending on where you live:
| Country | Formal requirements | Legal reference |
|---|---|---|
| 🇮🇹 Italy | Three alternative forms: public deed (atto pubblico); private document with authenticated signature (scrittura privata autenticata); private document delivered in person to the civil registry office of the municipality of residence, which records it in a dedicated register where one has been set up, or to the health facilities in the Regions that have regulated their collection. If the person’s physical condition does not allow a written form: a video recording or devices that enable them to communicate. Exempt from registration duty, stamp duty and any other tax. They can be renewed, amended and revoked at any time, in the same forms. Registration in the national DAT database at the Ministry of Health. | Law 219/2017, Art. 4(6)–(7) Law 205/2017, Art. 1(418) Ministerial Decree No. 168 of 10 December 2019 |
| 🇨🇭 Switzerland | Written form, dated and signed, governed uniformly by the Civil Code for all cantons. The person who draws up the living will can have the fact that they have made one, and where it is kept, recorded on their health insurance card; if the patient lacks capacity of judgement, the attending doctor checks the card. | Swiss Civil Code, Arts. 370–372 |
| 🇪🇺 Other EU countries | Requirements vary from one Member State to another. Check with a legal professional in your country of residence. | Varies by country |
Your rights over your health data
For special category (health) data, your rights are strengthened compared with ordinary data. In particular:
Give your explicit consent
Please read the following points carefully. Your consent is voluntary, specific and can be withdrawn at any time. You can’t use the advance directive feature without this consent, but withdrawing it does not affect the rest of your Erabox account.